Chapter 5: Eureekaaa!
Chapter 5: Eureekaaa!
When I arrived to this world, it was the early 1942. I sent Dr. Erskine and Colonel Philips to Stark Expo which happened in June. Now it was around November and I've established myself as a key figure in this war. Whenever they wanted to advance the army, I would go in as the hit team once a month and rip all the rewards. That granted me around 10 levels and 1500 Gold.
Also during that time I was living Techies' wet dream (placing mines around the map without anyone interrupting him). I wasn't getting any XP from that, but a nice flow of Gold was coming into my system. From my mines I got around 300 golds per month. Which added up to around 1850 gold from my mines.
The army surely abused my powers to the extreme. My powers had strategic values which was getting more and more recognition.
Well it's not like I didn't try to gain money out of each mine I placed or infiltration I participated in. I told major Dickinson to keep count of mines I placed so I could charge allies army for them later on. Major Dickinson whom I called "major dick" after the first week tried to demean my work as he didn't believe in my powers. I didn't get mad over it, it's not like anyone would trust a magician who could summon demons on peace time.
There was another advantage that my mines had, which was differentiating between allies and enemies. I didn't notice how valuable that power was until 2 weeks into my minefield creation mission.
They called me back to a higher level camp that had more distance from the front lines which surprised me that they stopped juicing my powers to the extreme.
The camp which looked highly secure was built on a hill; well most of the camp was inside the hill.
Anyway Major Jackson and I plus my team arrived to the camp. There were five layers of defense around the camp, and each of these gates needed the identification to let us to go through their highly secured gates into the inner area.
There was a flat land around the hill and there were many military infrastructures, anti-missiles, tanks, helicopters and rows and rows of soldiers marching around the area.
"Major, now that we are here why don't you tell us where we are going." I asked Major Dickenson. He was acting borderline suspicious and a bit gleeful, which with my experience with him meant nothing good was happening.
"I can't," He answered, "now your team should go to the supervision office, or they might get shot staying in this highly secured site without information of their stay approved by the office."
Lieutenant Jackson and soldiers felt they lost couple of skin color tone, and nearly ran towards the place Major Dickenson showed them.
"You could've been more lenient with them Major Dick, it's not like it's their fault that they were added to my team."
He "Hhmmff"ed and didn't answer me. He just said, "Let's go. Important people are waiting for you."
I was intrigued to meet these important people, I had no idea what was happening. So I just trusted my worth and followed Major Dick.
We reached to the hill (center of the camp) and I saw a giant steel door and logo of Stark Industries on the door. Of course it was Howard Stark who built this secure camp. The gates that we passed till that point looked futuristic for that time which should've been obvious it was Howard's handiwork.
The door opened after a group of soldiers checked our identification again and body checked us for weapons, again. Finally the door opened and after passing couple of corridors, we reached an elevator which took us to 8-10 levels under the surface and we finally reached the destination.
I couldn't say that the whole security system didn't get me annoyed, but the moment we reached the door we had to go in Major Dickenson looked at me before knocking and said, "We are going to meet some of the heads of Allies army and their advisors. I hope you try to behave better and try not to anger any of them." He waited for a moment to get a nod out of me and knocked on the door.
Inside the room a group of generals were sitting around a round table and each of them had one or two advisors (who were at least Colonels) behind them. I also spotted Howard stark on a chair beside someone who looked like a big deal there.
"He is Field martial of the Army, Dwight Eisenhower, highest rank around here." Dick whispered under his breath while showing that bald man.
"Thank you" I whispered back.
The Generals were discussing some topics before we arrived there and noticed our presence a minute after we were inside.
"I see. We'll discuss that later General Roberts, but first we need to finish the first agenda of this meeting. Our guests are here. Major Dickenson, Mr. Rapier, or should I say Second Lieutenant Rapier. Which one do you prefer?" Eisenhower said while explicitly challenging me to see if I'm on the side of Army or not.
"Mr. Rapier has a nice ring to it General that I don't feel like changing it to anything at the moment." I answered.
He laughed but most of the Generals were looking at me like I was a traitor. Howard also looked at me with a curious look, like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve.
"Do you know why you are here Mr. Rapier?" Eisenhower asked.
"I'm afraid no, sir. Major Dickenson didn't divulge any information on this meeting." I replied.
"That was his order Mr. Rapier, just wanted to know if you had any other means of information." Eisenhower said, "Look at this picture Mr. Rapier."
An old slideshow appeared on a screen on the other side of Eisenhower. The picture showed inside a truck, one of those that carried soldiers around, but the interior was covered in blood.
Eisenhower said, "Four days ago a group of British soldiers were on a road which your magical bombs were placed on. You assured us they won't go off in with our soldiers and considering your previous bombs we trusted your words. But the first bomb went off as one of the soldier trucks passed over the bomb. The truck took no damage, but one of the soldiers inside the truck took all the damage and blew up."
Listening to that I smiled and then I started laughing slowly. Why didn't I think of that before? It was perfect! Using bombs to root out any spies!
One of the Generals got furious of my uncontrolled chuckle and shouted "Why are you smiling? Do you know what you did? HE WAS A BRAVE MAN AND YOU KILLED HIM! I'll make sure you end up dead or rotting in prison."
I didn't stop my chuckle and said, "It's funny because he was a traitor. Maybe I wasn't sure, and even now I am not certain of details, but these bombs that I create …" I looked at Eisenhower and said "Which they are called proximity bombs, not magical bombs" and continued toward that general "These bombs can differentiate between friends and foes, I can assure you these are safe. I can create some bombs for you to test. You can use people you are suspecting that they are traitors and people you are sure of it, and also loyal soldiers. Test if what I'm saying is correct."
"What?!"
"Did I hear correctly?"
Generals around that room started talking with each other. If true, the strategic implications of these bombs were too massive.
Howard finally started talking. "But how can these magical constructs differ when there is moral ambiguity? Or for example someone is angry at an order or the death of his comrades, that person may momentarily want to rebel, do bombs go off then? Or maybe if someone just wants to hurt a person inside the camp, not intending to hurt the army. How these bombs even make these moral choices?"
Generals stopped speaking instantly. Each of them had many incidents that could be called a dark past. They cheated, sent platoons to die, ordering suicide missions with no point, even backstabbing their fellow generals sometime. Could they die on these bombs too?
"Ah Mr. Stark. It's always refreshing to talk to someone of your reputation and intelligence. For my bombs, I could say I connect them to the will of universe. I don't know how it works either, but I can always provide bombs for your tests."
Eisenhower said, "We need to test your theories. If what you said is correct and we can root out the spies using your bombs, this could be a contribution worth going down the school history books."
I added, "And with this reveal, the price for each bomb will rise." I smirked a bit.
Howard started laughing suddenly. "A man of my caliber I see. I would like to work with you Mr. Rapier."
I smiled back and nodded. We (major dick and I) were ordered to wait in a hidden waiting room. Major Dickenson didn't look happy with the turn of events. It didn't take long until I was summoned to the meeting room. And only I was summoned.
They didn't let Major Dickenson come along.
I went inside and only Eisenhower and Stark were present.
"Mr. Rapier please take a seat." Eisenhower said with a serious voice.
I took a chair and sat on the other side of the table.
Eisenhower started, "You started your relationship with Allied army as a hired gun …"
"Or hired magic," Howard interrupted him.
"I like what he said," I pointed at Howard.
Eisenhower was a bit annoyed and said, "Be serious for a moment. Let's negotiate prices."
To be continued …
------------
Name: Raymond -???- Rapier
Level: 31
Skill points: 30
Ult points: 1
Trait points: 2
Health: 1060/1060+10.6 per minute
Mana: 836/836+ 4.15(2.65 from INT and 1.5 Urn of shadows) per minute
Stats: INT:51(+2)/ AGI:51(+2)/ STR:51(+2)
Attack damage: 53(INT)
Armor: 10.3(+2)
Spell Amp: 10%+53%(INT)
Gold: 4376
Talents: Cast range +5m (Level5), Cast range +5m (Level10), Demonic Conversion: +2 eidolons (Level15)
ULTs:
Chaotic Offering[Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 ultimate points to level up]
Wall of Replica[Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 ultimate points to level up]
Skills:
Heartstopper Aura[Lv2](Passive) [Need 5 points to level up]
Paralyzing Cask [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Stroke of Fate [Lvl2] (Active) [Need 5 points to level up]
Demonic Conversion[Lvl2] (Active) [Need 5 points to level up]
Soul Rip [Lvl2] (Active) [Need 5 points to level up]
Poison Sting[Lvl1] (Passive) [Need 2 points to level up]
Weapon of Wisdom[Lvl1] (Active) [Need 3 points to level up]
Proximity Mines[Lvl3] (Active) [Need 10 points to level up]
Power Shot [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Ice Vortex [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Take Aim [Lvl2] (Passive) [Need 5 points to level up]
Healing ward [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Summon Wolves [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Acid Spray [Lvl1] (Active) [Need 2 points to level up]
Skill points: 0 (You need 2 in order to randomize a new skill) / Talent point: 1 / Ult point: 0 (You need 1 in order to randomize a new skill)
Inventory: [Urn of Shadows(20 charges)] [Colt(7 rounds)][ Slot4 - Empty][Slot4 - Empty]
[Quest:
Kill 1000 creeps (150/1000) [Get 10 skill points + 1000 Gold]
Kill 1 Hero (0/1) [Get 1 Ultimate point + 500 Gold]
Heal for 50000 points[Mid battle] (0/50000) [Get 1 skill point + 100 Gold]
Deal 500000 magic damage (25079/500000) [Get 6 skill points + 800 Gold]]